Why Become an Entrepreneur?

Why Become an Entrepreneur?
The three primary reasons that people become entrepreneurs and start their
own firms are to be their own boss, pursue their own ideas, and realize financial
rewards.
Be Their Own Boss The first of these reasons—being one’s own boss—is
given most commonly. This doesn’t mean, however, that entrepreneurs are difficult
to work with or that they have trouble accepting authority. Instead, many
entrepreneurs want to be their own boss because either they have had a longtime
ambition to own their own firm or because they have become frustrated
working in traditional jobs. The type of frustration that some entrepreneurs feel
working in conventional jobs is exemplified by Wendy DeFeudis, the founder of
VeryWendy, a company that makes customized social invitations. Commenting
on how her experiences working for herself have been more satisfying than
working for a large firm, DeFeudis remarked:
I always wanted to be my own boss. I felt confined by the corporate structure.
I found it frustrating and a complete waste of time—a waste to have to sell my
ideas to multiple people and attend all kinds of internal meetings before moving
forward with a concept.14
Sometimes the desire to be their own boss results from a realization that
the only way they’ll achieve an important personal or professional goal is to
start their own business. Christopher Jones, David LaBat, and Mary McGrath
started a business for this reason. The three, who are educational psychologists,
had secure jobs at a public school in the Santa Clarita Valley, north of
Los Angeles. Over time, they felt inhibited by the limited range of services they
were able to provide students in a school setting, so they left their jobs to start
Dynamic Interventions, a more full-service educational psychology and counseling
center. Recalling why it was necessary for him and his colleagues to
leave their jobs to become their own bosses Jones said:
The idea came from some general frustrations with not being able to practice the
breadth of service that [we wanted to]. And instead of going to work and being
angry about it for the next 30 years, we decided to do something about it. With
Dynamic Interventions, our service doesn’t stop at the end of the school day. We
can go more in-depth and be more beneficial to the whole family.”
Pursue Their Own Ideas The second reason people start their own
firms is to pursue their own ideas.16 Some people are naturally alert, and
when they recognize ideas for new products or services, they have a desire to
see those ideas realized. Corporate entrepreneurs who innovate within the
context of an existing firm typically have a mechanism for their ideas to
become known. Established firms, however, often resist innovation. When
this happens, employees are left with good ideas that go unfulfilled.17
Because of their passion and commitment, some employees choose to leave
the firm employing them in order to start their own business as the means to
develop their own ideas.
This chain of events can take place in noncorporate settings, too. For example,
some people, through a hobby, leisure activity, or just everyday life, recognize
the need for a product or service that is not available in the marketplace.
If the idea is viable enough to support a business, they commit tremendous
time and energy to convert the idea into a part-time or full-time firm. In
Chapters 2 and 3, we focus on how entrepreneurs spot ideas and determine if
their ideas represent viable business opportunities.
An example of a person who left a job to pursue an idea is Kevin Mann,
the founder of Graphic.ly, a social digital distribution platform for comic
book publishers and fans. Mann became discouraged when he couldn’t find
a comic book in which he was interested. He even took a 100 mile train ride
to search for it in a neighboring city. His frustration boiled over on the train
ride home:
I kept thinking that there had to be a better way of buying comics; and then it
dawned on me. That morning I had purchased a movie from iTunes, which I was
watching right there on the train. Why shouldn’t buying comics be just as easy?
Why did I have to travel over a 100 miles and waste the better part of day, all for
nothing? I realized I had two options. I could quit buying comics or I could quit my
job and build the iTunes of comics.18
This revelation led to the launch of Graphic.ly in the fall of 2009. Today,
Graphic.ly is both a robust platform for the sale of digital comics and a social
network for people who enjoy discussing the comics they’re reading. Following
up on the story about the train ride, Mann went on to say:
That’s how Graphic.ly started and my enthusiasm for comics has now transferred
to a business I love being part of. Every single day I am excited to go to work. I get
to create and innovate in a sector I love. Ultimately, I’ll solve a problem that was
ruining something very special to me.19
Pursue Financial Rewards Finally, people start their own firms to pursue
financial rewards. This motivation, however, is typically secondary to the
first two and often fails to live up to its hype. The average entrepreneur does
not make more money than someone with a similar amount of responsibility in
a traditional job. The financial lure of entrepreneurship is its upside potential.
People such as Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, and
Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google made hundreds of millions of dollars
building their firms. Money is also a unifier. Making a profit and increasing the
value of a company is a solidifying goal that people can rally around. But
money is rarely the primary motivation behind the launch of an entrepreneurial
firm. Some entrepreneurs even report that the financial rewards associated
with entrepreneurship can be bittersweet if they are accompanied by losing
control of their firm. For example, Sir Richard Branson, after selling Virgin
Records, wrote, “I remember walking down the street [after the sale was
completed]. I was crying. Tears . . . [were] streaming down my face. And there
I was holding a check for a billion dollars. . . . If you’d have seen me, you would
have thought I was loony. A billion dollars.”20 For Branson, it wasn’t just the
money—it was the